Friday, March 8, 2013

No burial for Hugo Chavez; body to be embalmed and put on permanent display

Hugo Chávez's body will be embalmed and put on display in a glass casket for eternity at a military museum after a big state funeral on Friday.

"It has been decided that the body of the comandante will be embalmed so that it remains eternally on view for the people at the museum," Nicolás Maduro, the country's acting president, told state TV. The move would keep Chávez's socialist revolution alive, he said. The museum, which has not been built, would be called the Museum of the Revolution.

At least 33 world leaders and hundreds of thousands of supporters are expected in the capital, Caracas, for an emotional ceremony which Maduro said would begin at 11am local time.

Under the Venezuelan constitution, an election should be held within 30 days of the announcement of Chávez's death on Tuesday, but politicians and officials have indicated there may not be time to organise it so quickly.

Admiral Diego Molero Bellavia, the defence minister, fuelled the febrile mood by urging Venezuelans to vote for Chávez's designated heir, Maduro, and to give opposition "fascists a good hiding" at the polls. He told state TV that the "mission" of the armed forces was to put Maduro in the presidency.

Polls give Maduro a big lead over the expected opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles, a young state governor who lost to Chávez in last October's election.

As the president lay in state at the Caracas military academy, drawing mile-long lines of people wishing to pay their respects, details emerged of his final moments following a two-year battle with cancer.

The government has not given specific details of the cancer, which was in the pelvic region, but on the eve of his death it announced he had suffered a severe respiratory infection.

Ornella said the best doctors from all over the world treated Chávez in Cuba and Venezuela but they had never discussed his condition in front of him. The general said he did not know what kind of cancer afflicted Chávez, but added: "He suffered a lot."

When the president made his final public address on 8 December before returning to Cuba for more surgery he knew "there was very little hope he would make it out of that operation".

Two months earlier the president, first elected in 1998, won another landslide after promising voters he had been cured. Ornella echoed government claims that unnamed foes, assumed to be the US, triggered the cancer. "I think it will be 50 years before they declassify a document [that] I think [will show] the hand of the enemy is involved," he said.

Chávez often said he wished to be buried on the plains – los Llanos – of his home state Barinas. "Have me buried here, along these savannahs. This is an order I've given, when my time comes," he said on his TV show in 2009, before the cancer diagnosis.

Putting his body on display in Caracas would violate the president's expressed wish but facilitate visits by supporters who wish to pay homage. It would also give his ruling socialist party, the PSUV, a powerful symbol in the heart of the capital.

Tens of thousands lined up in baking sunshine to glimpse Chávez, dressed in military uniform and red beret, in a coffin at the military academy.

"When you see him it's a shock, it's too painful," said Ismelda Gonzalez, 57, a seamstress who had travelled from the provincial city of Valencia and queued overnight. "Seeing him, it's like a dream and a nightmare. We're all still in shock. We have lost a man of principles. No one is comparable." Her daughter Vanessa, 18, said she would vote for Chávez's heir. "I am with Maduro. We will continue with the struggle."

Soldiers handed water bottles to the massed crowds. Loudspeakers played speeches and songs by Chávez. Some people wept, others kept their spirits high with their own songs. One young man practised salsa steps.

"I have come to give thanks. Thanks to the president I always got my pension," said Inez Delgado, 70, wiping away tears. "When we heard the news of his death it was like a hurricane hit us."Members of the opposition have kept a low profile and offered condolences during the enormous show of support for Chávez, one of Latin America's most popular leaders.But some expressed relief at the demise of a man they saw as a dictator who trampled on opponents and ruined their economy.

"I wanted his mandate to end. Power made him lose perspective," said Israel Nogales, 43, a university administrator walking in a Caracas park. "He polarised the country and families like mine …He is going to be treated like a martyr and that is wrong."

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JAI PARASRAM retired from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) on Nov. 30, 2013 after a quarter of a century at the Corporation. He was a member of the team that inaugurated Newsworld, the CBC's 24-hour cable news service. He produced and edited the first newscast for the service on July 31, 1989. He was a Producer on the team that won a GEMINI AWARD for the coverage of the SwissAir disaster in Nova Scotia in 1998. Jai left Newsworld in 1998 and established Jyoti Communication. His main projects have involved training journalists, program development for radio and television, corporate imaging, event management and media projects for clients in the Caribbean, Canada and the United States. Jai returned to the CBC in 2003 and worked with the online service CBC.ca until his retirement. Jai's career began in his native Trinidad in 1972. He has worked mostly in television, as a reporter, editor, producer, interviewer, news anchor and executive producer. He has won several awards for excellence in journalism and broadcasting. Jai, who is also a documentary producer, holds a Master of Journalism degree (MJ) from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.